Nicholas Standaert has long since established himself as an expert in the contextualization of Christianity in early modern China. In his latest monograph, Standaert goes to the very core of socio-religious inculturation, by means of analysing the changing nature of funerary rites in Christian, Buddhist and Confucian ritual communities.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines ritual as “the performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by tradition or by sacerdotal decree,” while Webster's Dictionary describes “Weaving” as “the act or art of forming cloth in a loom by the union or intertexture of threads.” In unison with these venerable dictionary entries, Standaert firstly defines the “traditional” and “sacerdotal” roles of funerary ritual in each community, followed by an investigation into the forming of “unions” or “intertextures.” In this context, the historical development of alternative funerary rituals are explored, changes in European Catholic perceptions of death and the funerary act are charted, to be subsequently contrasted with the social customs surrounding death at the very same time in China. Once the character of the original thread (and loom) is established, the process of “interweaving” can begin, observed on the basis of the funerals of European missionaries and leading Christian converts.
In this context, the last rites for Matteo Ricci († 1610), Gabriel Magalhães († 1677), Adam Schall von Bell († 1669) and Ferdinand Verbiest († 1688) are analysed, in conjunction with the funerary procedures accompanying the interment of family members of Christian literati, such as Yang Tingyun's parents (died 1618 and 1619).
The transition between the initial missionary purism concerning Christian death rites, and the degree of cultural flexibility which had been reached by the Kangxi period, can be characterized as “dramatic.” But were the changes in funerary rituals driven by a missionary learning process alone? Standaert disagrees, conceding that much of the agency towards cultural change derived from the zeal of convert families, wanting to create a clear break with their past, while being bound by Confucian morality (filial piety) and pressure towards social conformity (lineage obligations). Adding to the complexity was the fact that rites of different traditions co-existed in parallel fashion, resulting in one private core-funeral and in a surrounding funerary ritual (procession) for the wider public. Standaert refers to this process of inserting Christian ritual practice onto currently applied Chinese ones as “grafting,” paradoxically drawing into question the initially used textile metaphor.
The structure of the volume reflects the gradual transformation of funerary rites and attitudes towards the dead. The monograph is divided into eight chapters. While chapters one, two and eight provide the socio-cultural background and theoretical skeleton, the five “inner chapters” constitute the book's empirical body. The first chapter dismantles the idea of China and Europe as two unchanging cultural hemispheres, portraying the momentous changes in ritual form and attitude between the 10th and 16th centuries. Philippe Ariès's seminal oeuvres concerning the “history of death” play a prominent role in The Interweaving of Rituals. The second chapter follows on, both thematically and chronologically, in its analysis of society and death. With its focus on the 17th century, the interpretations of European visitors to China are taken under the microscope, thus revealing as much about Western (“proto-ethnographic”) attitudes as about those in China. It is the latter which the following two chapters focus on, namely the shift from a “purist,” yet localized and ultimately accommodating Christian policy (sic) concerning funeral rites, in the century between the 1580s and the 1680s. Chapters five and six define by means of prescriptive ritual texts, which were as much “Christian” as “Confucian” in character, the often paradoxical nature of 17th-century rituals. A prominent position in this context, and completely devoted to in the penultimate seventh chapter, is the sponsorship of the Shunzhi and Kangxi courts of the European missionaries – a virtually unique privilege which encouraged the foreigners to pay particular attention to the question of funerary rites. The final chapter returns the reader to the initial excursion into East-Western musings on death, albeit from a more theoretical vantage point. It is in this context that the implications of the inter-cultural “weaving process” become obvious.
Standaert's sources, mostly of Jesuit provenance (e.g. Fonti Ricciane), as well as prescriptive Chinese texts from the late Ming and early Qing periods (e.g. Shengshi lidian), are not new in themselves. But it is due to the author's skilful eye that passages relevant to the funerary topic are being presented in a new light. This is particularly true for the documents shedding light on the Calendar crisis of 1665 and the subsequent exile of most missionaries in Guangzhou. Of political significance already in itself, the pronouncements of the correct form of funeral and death ritual gain the relevance they deserve in this volume.
Perhaps to an even greater extent than in his other books, Standaert's new volume will appeal to a wide section of the academic public, from historians of early modern China and Europe to a readership interested in the differences and consonances between different cultures in general.
